What are your thoughts on the game so far?

[Don Maddox]

How do you think this game compares to other space games like the Homeworld and Galactic Civilizations series?

[Scott Tortorice]

Of the two, Sins is closer to Homeworld. But having said that, I think Sins resembles Total War the most. Like that historical series, Sins has redefined a whole genre.

Speaking of Total War, I hope someday that series adopts the same Sins methodology whereby you don't have to switch back and forth from the turn-based strategic game to the tactical RTS game. Imagine how wonderful it would be to have to whole thing running in real time with a similar zoom function. Of course, CA would have to vastly improve the AI over the current Total War offering for that scheme to work (IronClad deserves a lot of credit for crafting such a competent AI).

[Don Maddox]

Sins is similar to Homeworld in a lot of ways, but it has a different feel to it.

For starters, you're managing an entire empire instead of a single large engagement. That means you have to contend with multiple enemies and worry about expanding as quickly as possible. Sins has more options for large battles and more types of capital ships.

On the downside, the ships themselves aren't as interesting as the ones in Homeworld 2. They aren't as large and the capitals in Sins aren't as powerful compared to those in Homeworld 2. Super-capital ships in Homworld 2 could easily stand off an entire fleet of frigates and heavy ships, destroying all of them and then some. Sins' capitals do get powerful, but only after they have a lot of upgrades and combat experience. Even then, a single capital is not all that impressive.

In that respect, I found the large, more detailed ship models of Homeworld 2 to be more to my liking. A lot of the ships in Sins tend to be a little on the bland side, with uninspired design. Nevertheless, Sins is an addictive game and a worthy addition to the space genre. There is a lot to like here and not much to dislike.

The production values of the music and art is not quite as good as HW2, but the planets and overall space effects are better.

[Scott Tortorice]

On the downside, the ships themselves aren't as interesting as the ones in Homeworld 2. They aren't as large and the capitals in Sins aren't as powerful compared to those in Homeworld 2. Super-capital ships in Homworld 2 could easily stand off an entire fleet of frigates and heavy ships, destroying all of them and then some. Sins' capitals do get powerful, but only after they have a lot of upgrades and combat experience. Even then, a single capital is not all that impressive.

In that respect, I found the large, more detailed ship models of Homeworld 2 to be more to my liking. A lot of the ships in Sins tend to be a little on the bland side, with uninspired design.

I couldn't agree more and Ironclad has been getting this criticism from most of the reviews. In the recent issue of the Sinners Digest, they address this facet of Sins:


I saw an article at IGN (http://pc.ign.com/articles/853/853275p1.html)about how PC developers are blaming piracy as the reason some high profile games aren't selling in the quantities they should. As some of you know, Stardock's "main" business is in the PC software realm so we have a bit different outlook on market dynamics. Here's the deal: Piracy is a problem, no doubt about it. It does cost sales. But it isn't the driving reason for lost sales, it's the size of the market. Sins of a Solar Empire is outselling some higher profile games not just because it's a "great game" but because it runs on a vastly larger number of PCs.

For console advocates out there, ask yourself how well a given game would sell if it required players to run out and buy a $300 upgrade to their console to play the game? That's essentially what a lot of high profile PC game developers expect. When Ironclad and Stardock were working on Sins, we made a conscious decision that the game would not require potential gamers to upgrade their systems. That meant we couldn't have things like moving turrets or whatever but it means that the size of the market was much larger. No matter how good your game is, if people can't play it, you will always be limited. The number of people willing to upgrade PCs for games is not that large. If you want to sell lots of copies of your PC game, make sure it runs on a lot of machines.

What do you think of this strategy?